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By Victoria Waldersee
BERLIN, March 14 (Reuters) – Volkswagen plans to invest 180 billion euros ($192.76 billion) over the next five years in areas such as battery production and its North American operations, the company announced on Tuesday, while spending on combustion engines will be reduced from 2025.
With the goal of reaching 50% of electric vehicle sales worldwide by 2030, more than two-thirds of its five-year investment budget will go toward electrification and digitalization, up from 56% in the five-year plan published a year earlier. .
Under its latest plan, €15 billion goes to battery plants and raw materials and €2 billion to a plant in the US state of North Carolina, for its Scout brand.
Investment in combustion engine technology will peak in 2025 and decline thereafter, according to the automaker, which has more ambitious electrification targets than some competitors.
Investment decisions are geared toward meeting a 10-point plan developed by CEO Oliver Blume after taking the helm of the automaker in September.
Throughout Tuesday, Volkswagen is expected to share the results of a mock IPO exercise instigated by Blume. In it, all of the company’s brands, ranging from Audi to Bentley, prepare to go public as a training exercise to become more attractive to the capital markets.
The most likely candidate is battery subsidiary PowerCo. Reuters reported in November that there were talks with investors to buy the division ahead of a possible partial listing.
The automaker this month released an upbeat outlook for next year that sent shares soaring, with revenue expected to rise 10-15% on the back of a 14% rise in deliveries, despite supply chain problems.
Volkswagen’s 2022 profit margin came in at the high end of its 8.1% forecast, with sales and profit exceeding 2021 levels despite supply chain turbulence dragging down its net cash flow. well below target.
On Monday, Volkswagen announced that its first battery plant outside of Europe would be in Canada, with production starting in 2027. It was in no hurry to decide on the location of its next European plant until it learned what incentives Europe would offer, the council member said. Thomas Schmall.
(1 US dollar = 0.9338 euros)
(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; editing in Spanish by Benjamín Mejías Valencia)
